The Director Of 2024's Most Controversial Movie Doesn't Understand Why It Flopped

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Award season is in full swing once again, but one of the year's most talked-about dramas is noticeably absent from the seasonal conversations about Oscar odds. "The Apprentice," Ali Abassi's take on Donald Trump's rise to fame (or infamy) in the '70s and '80s, still feels like a movie that hasn't been released yet. Even though it has earned a few awards nominations (from the Indie Spirit Awards and the always-controversial Golden Globes), "The Apprentice" barely made a blip on the box office radar when it premiered in October.

To Iranian-Danish director Abassi, the man behind films like "Border" and "Holy Spider," the rejection of his Trump biopic seems inexplicable. "I'm disappointed and shocked about the reception in the U.S. of 'The Apprentice,'" Abassi told The Playlist. "What I'm really shocked about is that the movie is being considered controversial." The Sebastian Stan-led film made just $12 million at the box office, reportedly less than its already-slim budget. But the reaction to the film's apparent controversy extends past its lackluster box office haul, with both Stan and Abassi noting that Stan was unable to participate in Variety's famed Actors on Actors panel this year because no other performers were willing to touch the topic of Donald Trump. The movie also seemingly had issues securing a director in the first place, with Clint Eastwood among the bigger names that passed on it.

In his interview with The Playlist, Abassi said he heard that actors' publicists have been advising them against talking about the former and future U.S. President. "They just wanted to avoid that," he explained. The reception to the movie seems pretty baffling to the filmmaker. "I've said this many times, I still don't understand," Abassi said. "I mean, you're dealing with someone who is like, it's like he's the encyclopedia entry of World Controversial, Donald Trump. I don't know what's controversial about the movie."

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"The Apprentice" itself doesn't seem to be the problem here, as the vast majority of critics and audiences (83% and 84%, respectively, per Rotten Tomatoes) responded positively to it. In his review of the movie, /Film's Ryan Scott wrote that "'The Apprentice' is a good movie, albeit a difficult one to watch, with stellar performances elevating the proceedings." At the same time, he questioned its timing, noting that the film would make Trump supporters mad and stress everyone else out. "People who view Trump as a threat to democracy may not ultimately want to watch the film because it's history we're still living through," as Ryan pointed out, adding that the movie may have played better if it had been made a few years from now.

"The Apprentice" does distance itself from today in a few ways, taking place during the era in which Trump was rising through the ranks of the real estate industry with the help of Roy Cohn, the powerful but loathed McCarthy-era prosecutor played here by "Succession" star Jeremy Strong. The most controversial move the film makes is probably its inclusion of Ivana Trump's rape allegation (Maria Bakalova plays Trump's first wife in the film), which has been on the record for years, though she later recanted. Still, it's not particularly controversial to portray Trump as someone who violates consent, as over two dozen women have by now accused him of sexual misconduct, harassment, or assault.

Some people, it seems, think the very existence of "The Apprentice" — a film that tries to tell Trump's story and therefore has to acknowledge he's human — is controversial. Oliver Stone's "W," made the same year George W. Bush left office, faced a similar problem. Abassi himself doesn't mince words when it comes to his opinions on Trump, calling him a fascist outright. "Even if 99.9% of the American populace would vote for Mr. Trump, he's still a fascist and he will remain a fascist," Abbasi told The Playlist.

If you, like most people, missed "The Apprentice" in theaters, you can watch it now by renting it digitally on Amazon or wherever you get your movies. The DVD is due out on December 17, 2024, according to MSN.